It is five minutes past 12:00 (so technically June 11) where I am as I am writing this, but I will count it as still Wednesday (June 10th) anyway. :) So, guess what is one year old today? That's right ... this story! Happy birthday, dear "Echoes", happy birthday to you! One year in and I am still loving writing it and interacting with all you wonderful readers!
Thirty-seven chapters. Four hundred and twenty-seven reviews. Fifty-two favourites. Eighty-eight follows. One amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing year! Thank you ALL so much!
I want to thank fiftyshadeswritergal for all the support that she has given with this story over the past year. Thank you to all the readers who have read this story, and special thanks to the reviewers and those who have communicated with me about how they have connected with or enjoyed this story. I am so grateful for your help and encouragement and amazing support through everything that I have dealt with over the past year while also trying to write often. You are a wonderful community - thank you for your amazing love and support!
Thanks to the reviewers on the last chapter - Troubled-Angel-26, Sarai, DS2010, Loads of Randomness, Queenofwheels, Guest, Tamara, Fan, S, Fashionista-girl, NaughtyAngelBrat, JessicaRae95, and KrisShannon (thanks for the amazingly large review!).
Now, enjoy!
Warning - one swat.
...
Ziva reluctantly got into the car and sat as far away from Jenny as possible, leaning against the door in an effort to preserve distance.
"You, young lady, have a lot of explaining to do," Jenny said as a start to their conversation.
"I do not want to explain anything," Ziva replied loftily while wisely keeping her eyes away from Jenny's face. She knew that if she made eye contact it would be nearly impossible to continue being so brave ... or brazen. Whatever it was, it was preferable to feeling guilty.
"Would you prefer getting a spanking before or after explaining?" Jenny asked flatly.
"I am not getting a spanking! I did not do anything wrong!" Ziva protested angrily.
"I had told you to go up to your room and go to bed and that we would talk more in the morning. Sneaking out of the window and running away is not exactly classified as obedience."
Ziva crossed her arms defiantly. "You never told me that I could not leave your house."
"But I'm fairly certain we've already had a talk about climbing out of windows and down trees."
"My cut is all better now so that should not be a rule anymore."
"Well, sorry to disappoint," Jenny said with a heavy dose of sarcasm, "but I don't think that your safety should only be important to me when you are already hurt. I would like to prevent a repeat of it."
"I did not hurt myself! I am fine!"
"This time."
"And every other time that I have done it!"
Jenny gave Ziva an unimpressed look that demanded the truth.
"Only once out of what must have been hundreds of times."
"Hundreds?"
"At least, dozens."
"And why have you done that?" Jenny asked, sidetracked for the moment.
Ziva, deciding that this was not exactly any better than their current topic of conversation, refrained from answering. Her silence was taken by Jenny as a reason to return to the scolding that she had been giving so diligently.
"Anyway, it does not matter whether or not you got hurt - although I am relieved that you did not. You just cannot run away from your problems in that way whenever you want."
"I am not running away. I was ... running back here. Where I am supposed to be staying until you and Gibbs and Ducky finally are satisfied" - Ziva nearly spat the word out - "and I can go back to my own apartment. So, really, you should be pleased that I am back where I am supposed to be."
Jenny raised an eyebrow artfully at Ziva's tone but left it at that for the moment although her look promised that it would be brought up again in the future.
"I am glad that you returned to Jethro's house," Jenny said softly, "but that is also not the point. You were supposed to be at my house tonight, darling, and you ran away. And I would like to know why so that we can avoid it happening again and also so that I can deal with this situation fairly and appropriately."
"You do not have to deal with it at all," Ziva grumbled mutinously.
"I disagree. Now, I know that you were unhappy about me saying that you could not go back to work just yet. I know this is frustrating for you. I know how much you love your work."
Ziva nodded a little. She was still grumpy but she felt a little better knowing that she was at least being acknowledged.
"But ..."
Ziva frowned. She hated "buts" in conversations like this. It usually meant that Jenny was about to give her a reason that she was still in trouble despite having a legitimate reason for being upset.
"I tried to talk to you. I have told you that we needed to discuss your counseling sessions before I will consider letting you come back."
"It's not my fault that we argued over that! You were the one who wanted to talk about it, not me," Ziva said sullenly.
"I brought it up, but you could have respectfully declined to discuss it. Instead you threw a fit. And , yes, we do need to talk about the counseling sessions and that becomes more necessary every day. You keep begging to return, sweetheart, but that will not be happening until you fulfill the prerequisites."
"The what?" Ziva asked, puzzled.
"Prerequisites - things that are required to be finished before you move on to the next task."
Ziva did not exactly like that definition.
"And right now, young lady, you have quite a number of prerequisites to fulfill before you go back to work."
She liked that even less.
"And now we will have a prerequisite to the prerequisites."
"What?" Ziva asked nervously.
"Dealing with you running off in the middle of the night."
"First, you do not need to deal with it. And second, it is not the middle of the night! It will not be for another ..."
She looked up as Jenny opened her door and got out, slamming the door after her and coming around to Ziva's side.
Maybe I pushed her a little too far...
Jenny opened Ziva's door, pulled the reluctant young lady out of her chair, gave her one firm swat, then took her hand and pulled her back toward Gibbs' door. It was all done so firmly and quickly that Jenny was opening the door and pulling her into the house before she even processed the swat.
"Oww!" she protested, pulling away from Jenny. It was too late. She was already inside of the house - and there was Gibbs with a frown identical to Jenny's.
And now there are two of them.
Her face reflected her despondency. Then her annoyance. Then her spark of rebellion.
Who do they think they are?!
I have been fine many years without them. I will be fine for many more years without them as well. This is just humiliating. Me ... being caught by them! When did I sink so low?
Jenny seemed to be able to hear Ziva's thoughts because now, with a witness/backup she let loose a lecture. "Do you want to know how I found you, Ziva? Would you like to know how I knew to find you here and not at your own apartment or a bar or anywhere else in this town? You claim that you are fine, that you are just as alert and capable as before. Well, I followed you from the end of my street all the way here. I never lost sight of you for more than one minute at a time."
Ziva, who had been glaring at Jenny and wishing that she could someone inflict pain with just her eyes - other options were unavailable with Gibbs standing nearby, silent but forboding - suddenly found some of her anger was replaced with shock.
Jenny continued. "I was not trying to be evasive. I just followed you. Yet you were surprised to see me here! Your anger and frustration took such total control of you that you were incapable of detecting obvious surveillance. What if that had been a predator instead of me, Ziva? What if it has been a shooter, a kidnapper, a suspect? What then?!"
Ziva was internally shaken. What Jenny had just told her made some part of her innermost core feel frozen solid at the thought that she had let her passion completely overtake the training that she had received since she was old enough to ... think. But "bad girl" Ziva simultaneously surfaced.
"I would have preferred them to you," she muttered under her breath.
Jenny stopped short. Her face, already pale from the stress and fright of what she had witnessed, went even more pale as she stepped toward Ziva with a deathly cool.
"What. Did. You. Say?"
"I would have preferred them to you," Ziva replied, more frigid in her words than Jenny had been.
She nearly felt sorry when tears sprang to Jenny's eyes and she went silent in dismay. Nearly. But not quite. Ziva had been bottling up her anger ever since arriving at Gibbs' and now the dam was being overrun. Her resevoir was loosed.
"Why will you not leave me alone? If I had needed to I would have defended myself. I do not need your help to protect myself. I do not need it in anything, you..."
Gibbs stepped forward to stop Ziva from getting into some "creative" name calling.
"Bed. Now."
Apparently deathly cold commands were in fashion tonight.
"NO!"
And yelling was about to be.
Gibbs leveled her with the look he used when interrogating the worst of criminals ... and occasionally Tony. "Ziva, do not push me. Go to your room and go to bed," he growled.
Ziva could growl too.
"I do not want to!"
She felt a firm hand on her arm and yanked away. A flash of something went through her eyes, combining with the anger for a mere moment.
Gibbs looked at her sternly but did not reach out again, seeing that she was too agitated and furious ... at what exactly was uncertain. Yes, it was directed at him and Jenny. But he had a gut sense that this burst of rage had been simmering for a long time. He had also spotted that streak of fear in her eyes when he had lightly touched her arm. His own frustration was immediately locked under control and he made a small hand motion toward Jenny to let her know he had it under control - even if that was not exactly the case just yet.
"Go to the corner."
"NO!"
Secondarily, she thought "why?"
"You need to calm down," Gibbs said sternly but with a level tone. "Go to the corner."
Ziva tipped her chin up a little. "No. From what I have heard, that is a punishment only used for children. I am no child."
"It can also be successfully used on those acting like children," Gibbs said with conviction. "Now, you can choose to go stand in the corner now or tomorrow, but you will need to stand in the corner for twenty minutes here in the living room when you are ready."
"I will never be ready," Ziva replied with an air of superiority. She had gotten him there!
"Then you can consider yourself grounded until you do and until you face the consequences of what you've done."
"I just got done being grounded! You cannot ground me again!" Ziva protested with something near a shriek at the thought of being grounded again ... despite the fact that she had just convinced herself that she would not be in trouble if she simply refused to accept the consequences.
"It's only until after you do your corner time and whatever other consequences are appropriate for running away in the middle of the night and being disrespectful," Gibbs said calmly.
Ziva thought over the list of rules which she had surreptitiously read again and again until she had learned them by heart. Despite not liking the rules she did like the fact that she had easy access to them ... just in case there was a chance where she could protest that she was being punished unfairly. That had not happened as of yet, but she lived in hope. From what she remembered - to the sinking of her stomach - deliberate disobedience and putting herself in danger would earn her a spanking, if Jenny's previous declaration had not already alerted her to the fact that she was going to get one. And then being repeatedly disrespectful was certainly not increasing her chances at getting away without some sort of consequence for that either.
If Ziva had not possessed the heart of a lion she would have broken down in tears and begged for mercy. But she did and so she did not.
"Why don't you just get the corner time over with? Then we can sit down after and talk about your actions and figure out what would be appropriate discipline for them," Gibbs said reasonably.
"NO!" she hollered back at him, once again feeling the explosive power sneak out through her words ... or rather, a word.
"Why?" Jenny asked quietly.
"What?" Ziva asked, a little confused and becoming quieter and calmer at the basic question.
"Why?" Jenny repeated.
"I do not want to," Ziva pouted.
"Why not?"
Ziva frowned. "I do not want to have to stand in a corner or be punished..."
"Disciplined," Gibbs corrected quietly.
"It is not enjoyable from what I have heard. And it is not fair!"
"How is it not fair?" Jenny asked calmly.
"Everything is unfair!" Ziva burst out unhappily. "I want to be able to do what I want when I want to do it - go to bed or stay up, eat or drink whatever I want, walk wherever I like at whatever hour of the night I like. I am tired of you both being so bossy! I want you to just leave me alone!" she screamed. Gibbs and Jenny pressed down the urge to reprimand and watched her quietly.
Ziva shot an angry look at the two of them. Oh, so they thought that if they stayed silent that she would listen! Well, she would not! She would just leave!
Outside was not an option. She had a feeling that heading toward the door would elicit quite the response from Gibbs and Jenny. She wanted to get under their skin but she also wanted a victory.
The kitchen was open to the living room and so it was not dramatic enough for consideration. Stalking down the stairs would be dramatic ... but she quickly remembered what had happened down there the last time she was in trouble. She had a feeling that the stool was still there and if Gibbs came down ... no thank you!
Upstairs was the only option. She turned her back on the two others and marched upstairs. She almost went into her room but decided against it when she remembered that the door did not have a lock. Just like downstairs, it did not seem like the best place to go when trying to avoid a spanking. She dashed into the bathroom and locked the door behind her. She sat on the counter, crossed her legs, and rested her head on her hands. Her heart was beating quickly and adrenaline was pouring through her system.
Just let them try to get me out of here!
...
"Just let her work it out?" Jenny asked softly after the bathroom door upstairs slammed closed followed by the determined click of a lock.
"Yep," Gibbs confirmed with a small smile.
They settled it. Gibbs handed Jenny half of the newspaper and he worked on reading through the other half.
...
One minute passed.
No Jenny or Gibbs.
Five minutes passed.
Still no Jenny or Gibbs.
Ten minutes.
Fifteen minutes.
Thirty minutes.
Sitting on the counter was too uncomfortable and Ziva transitioned to sitting curled up on the floor of the shower.
Sixty minutes.
Had they forgotten her?
Ninety minutes.
Did anyone in this house ever have to use the bathroom?!
Somewhere approaching two hours Ziva sneaked out of the bathroom and into her bedroom. There was no sign that anyone had been up to even check if she was still there.
A little miffed and very tired, Ziva reluctantly cast a glance toward the stairs. She really wanted to go stir up a little more trouble.
But she honestly did not have enough energy. She went toward the stairs and peeked down. There were Jenny and Gibbs ... reading a newspaper?
She had completely exploded and they were reading about the stock market and weather forecasts?!
What did it take to get those two to react the way that they were supposed to?
Ziva wearily went to bed. The anger that she had been holding had dried up a little somewhere between squeezing herself on a cupboard next to a dripping sink and spying on Jenny and Gibbs reading a boring old newspaper.
She fell asleep. Tomorrow would be another chance to start causing trouble again.
...
"Can we stop pretending now?" Jenny asked in a whisper, rustling the newspaper to cover her words.
"Yeah, she should be asleep by now," Gibbs replied.
Quietly they set aside the newspaper that they had read over at least three times. Then they went upstairs on tip toe and sneaked into Ziva's room. Gibbs made sure the curtains were closed so sunlight would not wake her prematurely. Jenny gently adjusted the blanket so that it would cover Ziva's feet better. They both kissed her forehead and sneaked back out of the room.
Tomorrow would be another chance to help Ziva learn how much she was loved.
...
I hope that you enjoyed! This chapter was a little longer so I hope that you were able to enjoy that quite a bit! :D
If you have a moment, I'd love to hear from you in the reviews! ;) :D